Letters to the editor for Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Wednesday

Jan 30, 2013 at 2:00 AM

Mr. Hall's column of Jan. 24 implies that the Second Amendment was NOT written to protect us from a tyrannical government. His inference is factually incorrect as stated by both Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln:

Mr. Hall's column of Jan. 24 implies that the Second Amendment was NOT written to protect us from a tyrannical government. His inference is factually incorrect as stated by both Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln:

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." — Thomas Jefferson, 1 Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it." — Abraham Lincoln, 4 April 1861

Timothy J. Kelly

Warwick

Assault weapons are just what they say they are, assault weapons. You don't use a Bushmaster to hunt anything. You use it to kill other people. That's it.

It is not a weapon of sport, it is a weapon of war used to kill other people. You don't use it to kill varmints or deer or bear or anything else running around in the woods, you use it to kill other people.

Gun ownership is really not the issue here. There are plenty of excellent guns made for hunting that are legal.

If you need a 20-round clip to bring down a buck, maybe you shouldn't be out loose in the woods at all. It is a weapon designed and made to kill people that is the problem. Let's be completely honest here because there are too many innocent lives at stake in this.

Bill Flanagan

New Paltz

In the recent rush to pass a gun law, the governor failed to address the fact that a non-U.S. citizen can obtain a pistol permit in New York state.

A semiautomatic assault rifle is a hunting rifle in a different housing. There's a limit of seven rounds in a magazine but no mention of how many magazines a person can be in possession of.

Then $380 million is designated to enforce this law, which really was not thought out very well. This money should be earmarked for mental health in New York state.

In the past, New York state had many hospitals dedicated to mental health. This system has all but been eliminated because of state cutbacks. The governor has stated the family must monitor its members for mental health. Yet no real support system is in place. Many with mental health, drug or alcohol addiction end up in county jail, only to be released and returned repeatedly.

The budget presented by the governor denies payment for some anti-psychotic drugs, substituting generic for name brand for low-income mental health patients.

Please target the money where it will have some impact. The real problem is the mental health of the person pulling the trigger.